The Principal Accountant General (A&E) maintains the individual GPF accounts of nearly 2.9 lakh employees of the AP State Government. as per the rules and procedures contained in the GPF (AP) Rules 1935 and AIS (PF) Rules 1955 respectively.

The Provident Fund Group in the Office is headed by an IA & AS Officer in the rank of Deputy Accountant General.

Constitution of the Fund

The GPF is constituted with effect from 1st April 1935. The Funds are maintained in Indian Rupees.

Conditions for Eligibility

The following categories of staff of the Govt. of AP are eligible to join the Fund:

All Government servants including those appointed on or before 31.08.2004 under Rule 10(a)(i) of the State and Subordinate Service Rules are eligible.

All re-employed pensioners (other than those employed for admission to CPF) and those Government servants who have not completed one year service shall be eligible on option.

Provident Fund is maintained by PAG for the following categories of employees

4. New Contributory Pension Scheme of any category of employee of State who are appointed on or after 1.09.2004.

Nominations to GPF:

A subscriber has to file a nomination in the prescribed form at the time of joining the Fund. If the subscriber has a family at the time of filing the nomination, the nomination cannot be in favour of any person(s) other than the member(s) of his family. The nomination made by a subscriber who is not married shall become invalid on his getting married. If a subscriber nominates more than one person, he has to specify in the nomination the amount of share payable to each of the nominees in such a manner as to cover the whole of the amount that may stand to his credit in the Fund at any time. The responsibility of scrutiny, acceptance and safe custody of the nominations filed vests with the Prl. Accountant General. A subscriber can cancel a nomination by sending a notice in writing to the Head of Office/Prl. Accountant General along with a fresh nomination.

Every Nomination made, and every notice of cancellation given, by a subscriber shall, to the extent that it is valid, take effect on the date on which it is received by the Accounts Officer.

Admission to the GPF:

The Head of Office has to send a statement showing particulars of Government servants in the prescribed Form vide G.O.Ms.No.312 Fin, dated 28-10-1980 to the Principal Accountant General (A&E) for admission to the Fund. The GPF account number is allotted to each subscriber by the Principal Accountant General with a ‘Suffix’ indicating the department of the subscriber.

The Drawing and Disbursing Officers in the State Government prepare the staff pay bills along with GPF recovery schedules in respect of the subscribers to the Fund under their payment control and submit the same to the Treasury Officers for payment. After making payment the Treasury Officers forward the recovery schedules along with the Schedule of Payment to the Prl. Accountant General. From the GPF schedules and GPF payment vouchers received in the monthly accounts rendered by the Treasury Officers, the Prl. Accountant General posts the remittances/withdrawals into the accounts of the subscribers concerned.

The amount of subscription is fixed by the subscriber himself. However, it cannot be less than 6% of the basic pay and not more than the basic pay. The minimum subscription is determined on the basic pay drawn on 31st March of the preceding financial year. The rate of subscription can be reduced once, enhanced twice, reduced and enhanced as aforesaid during the course of a financial year.

Conditions for Subscription

The subscriber shall subscribe monthly to the Fund, except during:

1. Period of suspension.
2. Last four months of service before retirement.

A subscriber on reinstatement after a period of suspension is allowed to pay in lump or in installments any sum not exceeding the maximum amount of arrear subscriptions permissible for that period. A subscriber may at his option choose not to subscribe during leave without allowances or leave on half-pay.

Arrears due to the subscriber after retirement should be paid to the subscriber in cash and should not be credited to GPF.

Interest on the Fund

Interest at such rate as prescribed from time to time by Government of AP is credited to the subscribers’ account on the last day of every financial year.

The rate of interest for the year 2010-11 is 8 per cent.

Penal Interest on Overdrawals

The overdrawn amount shall be repaid along with a penal interest at the rate of 2.5% over and above the normal rate of interest .The amount shall be paid in one lump or in monthly installments.

Advances from the Fund

I. Temporary Advance (TA)

A temporary advance is granted to a subscriber from the amount standing to his credit in the Fund by the departmental officers for specified purposes. The amount of advance sanctioned shall not exceed 3 months pay or half the amount at the credit of the subscriber in the Fund, whichever is less subject to the following conditions. Sanction orders for temporary advances are noted in the subscribers’ accounts.

Temporary advance is to be applied in Prescribed Format.

Reasons for drawal of Temporary Advance

To meet expenses in connection with the prolonged illness of the applicant or any person actually dependant on him;

To pay for the overseas passage for reasons of health or education, or to meet the cost of higher education of the subscriber or any person actually dependant on him;

To pay obligatory expenses in connection with his or other ceremonies, or marriages, funeral or other ceremonies of persons actually dependant on him.

To meet the cost of legal proceedings instituted by the subscriber for vindicating his position in regard to any allegations made against him in respect of any act done or purporting to be done by him in the discharge of his official duty.

To meet the cost of building or acquiring a suitable house for his residence.

To meet the cost of acquiring a farm land and / or business premises within 6 months of the date of the subscriber’s retirement. To meet the cost of purchasing a motor-car.

Recovery of Temporary Advance

1. The advances are recoverable from the subscriber in such number of equal monthly installments as the sanctioning authority may direct, but such number shall not be less than 12 , unless the subscriber so elects, and not more than 24. In special cases where the amount of advance exceeds 3 months’ pay, the number of installments can be more than 24, but in no case more than 36.2. When there is an advance running and a second advance is sanctioned, the balance of the previous advance not recovered shall be added to the advance so sanctioned and the subsequent installments for recovery of advances shall be fixed with reference to the consolidated amount.

3. The recovery shall commence with the issue of pay for the month following the month in which the advance was drawn.

4. A subscriber may, at his option, repay more than one installment in a month.

5. Recoveries towards refund of Temporary Advances shall not be affected during the last four months of service of subscriber.

Imp: Subscriber should ensure that the TA amount drawn is debited to his account in the GPF Slip in the year in which it was drawn. If not, the matter should be brought to the notice of the PAG immediately.

II .Non-Refundable Advance / Part-Final Withdrawal (PFW)

Non-Refundable Advance is to be applied in Prescribed Form.

Conditions for Sanction of Non-Refundable Advances

Part-Final Withdrawals may be sanctioned by an authority competent to dismiss the subscriber at any time after the completion of twenty years of service or within ten years before the date of his retirement on superannuation, whichever is earlier.

After completion of 15 years service or within 10 years of retirement.

Upto 3/4ths of the balance or actual cost whichever is less

15-F

Expenditure towards acquiring house site.

----do----

1/4th of balance or actual cost of site whichever is less

15-G

Expenditure towards construction of a house on a site purchased from the amount withdrawn under Rule 15-F

---do----

1/3rd of balance or actual cost whichever is less

15-H

Acquiring a farm land or business premises

6 months before retirement

Upto half of balance or 6 months pay whichever is less. In special cases upto 3/4th of balance.

15-I

Expenditure towards purchase of motor car

After 28 years of service or 3 years before retirement

Rs.12000/- or 1/4th of balance or actual price whichever is the least.

CONVERSION OF AN ADVANCE TO PART FINAL WITHDRAWAL
A subscriber may, at his discretion by written request, convert the balance outstanding under a temporary advance into a part-final withdrawal after satisfying conditions laid down in Rules 15-A to 15-I.

DELEGATION OF FINANCIAL POWERS FOR SANCTIONING TA / PFW

Power to sanction GPF TA / PFW to Heads of Departments and their immediate Deputies will be with the Government in the Administrative Department concerned.
Sanctioning Authority should be two levels above the person to whom advances or part final withdrawals are sanctioned.

Final Withdrawal (Closure)

(i) Final withdrawal of accumulation in the Fund is permitted when subscriber quits the service (on retirement, dismissal, resignation, compulsory retirement, removal etc.).
(ii) In case of death while in service.

How to Apply for Closure?

(a) Application for closure has to be filed in Prescribed Format.

(b) The application duly filled in and signed by the subscriber/claimant(s) is to be given to the department for forwarding the same to the Prl. Accountant General along with requisite documents by the Head of Office.

Conditions for Closure

1. Subscription and refund to be discontinued during the last four months of service in case of superannuation. Arrears of Pay, DA, IR etc. should not be remitted during the above period.

2. No TA /PFW shall be sanctioned and paid to the subscriber. In exceptional circumstances, where PFWs have been sanctioned, the same is to be communicated invariably to Prl. Accountant General and acknowledgement obtained.

Manner of Payment
The Accounts Officer in PAG’s Office closes the account after verifying the ledger accounts and issues an authority for payment of the amount. Authorisations are forwarded to the Drawing and Disbursing Officers concerned. The Fund accumulation payable to the subscriber shall be paid to the person(s) on whom the right to receive the amount is conferred by means of a nomination as per rules, if the said subscriber dies while in service or before receiving the fund accumulation after retirement. If the subscriber dies while in service and where there is no nomination, the amount will be paid to the eligible family members in equal share on the basis of Legal Heir Certificate issued by Revenue Authorities.

GPF (AP) Rules do not permit payment of interest beyond the date of authorisation by the Principal Accountant General.

Interest is allowed up to the end of the month previous to the month in which authorisation for payment of PF balance is issued. As per G.O. No.3 of Finance and Pension II Department dated 8.1.07, interest is to be allowed up to a maximum of 6 months after the month in which such amount became payable.

Annual Accounts Statement
After the close of each financial year, the Principal Accountant General sends to each subscriber an Annual Accounts Statement showing the opening balance as on the 1st April of the year, the total amount deposited and withdrawn during the year, amount of interest credited as on 31st March of the year and the closing balance on that date. Subscribers have to satisfy themselves as to the correctness of the Account Statements and errors should be brought to the notice of the Principal Accountant General within three months of receipt of the same.

The slips for the year 2009-2010 are available in the website

Missing Credits
At times, schedules/vouchers are not received from the Treasuries for various reasons and as a result some of the subscriptions/refunds/arrears/withdrawals do not get posted in the account. These missing credits/debits can be located and included in the subscriber’s account after proper verification of the accounts rendered to PAG by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers/Treasuries subject to furnishing the following details duly certified by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers and the Treasury Officers.

Name of the Subscriber

GPF Account number

Name of the DDO under whom the official had served

Amount of subscription/refund/withdrawal

Salary month for which details are being furnished Head of Account (up to Detailed Head) under which salary was drawn

Treasury/Sub Treasury where the salary was drawn

Treasury voucher number / challan number

Totals of the schedule amount enclosed in the particular voucher as noted on the abstract in case of credit.

Date of payment of the voucher/remittance of the amount in the case of challan remittance

Total amount of the GPF payment vouchers in respect of debits.

Missing Debits:

1. Sanction received without corresponding debit.
2. Refund received without corresponding debit.

Facilities

1. Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)

Enquiries on GPF matters can also be made by calling in 040-23231212

2. Grievance Redressal Cell

To facilitate enquiries regarding GPF in the Office premises, a Grievance redressal cell is constituted. The GDC representative assists the visitor in the following areas:

Plans are afoot to send Short Message Service (SMS) to subscribers whose mobile numbers are registered with PAG. Particulars of subscription, withdrawals, on monthly basis would be intimated. GPF subscribers are requested to furnish their mobile numbers through the screen provided in the web site.

Do’s and Don’ts in the preparation of GPF Schedules by DDOs

Do’s

Amounts of subscription should be rounded to whole rupees.

The account numbers should be arranged in serial order.

The guide letters (i.e. GA, PH, Medl etc.) should invariably be suffixed to the Account Numbers.

Reasons for discontinuance of subscriptions should be given (i.e. official “Proceeded on leave”, “Transferred to”_______Office-District, “Quit service, died or discontinued”.)

Against new names, it should be written that new name is a new subscriber or “New Subscriber” transferred from _______Office-District et.

The total of the schedule should be struck and written both in figures and words.

Month of recovery should be clearly indicated.

Schedules should be prepared neatly and legibly and separately for class IV employees.

Correct Classification should be recorded on schedules, challans and debit vouchers.

Subscriptions, refunds towards TAs should be separately indicated. Refunds should be supported by installments and the amount of loan outstanding.

Schedules and Vouchers should be arranged in order as per the list.

Original authorizations should be enclosed to Debit Vouchers of Final Payment Cases.

The challans should contain the details of the amounts remitted thereon on overleaf instead of separate sheet enclosed to the challans.

11 digit code should be recorded in schedules.

Uniform format of schedule for all recoveries of GPF (Viz. subscription, DA etc.) should be adopted.